Back in their heyday, Queen was made up of singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon. Fast forward to today and the iconic band are still touring with Adam Lambert, following Freddie’s untimely death in 1991. However, John Deacon hasn’t been involved with the group since 1997. Nevertheless, Brian and Queen have posted a Happy 68th Birthday to their old buddy today on their Instagram accounts.
May shared some snaps of “Deacy”, as did the official Queen account.
But where has Deacon been these last two decades and why did he quit the band?
The 68-year-old is estimated to be worth up to £130million and has quietly raised six children with his wife of 44 years in the same South West London home he bought with his first royalty paycheque.
In 1997, six years after Freddie’s death, Deacon quit the band after they had finished demos and recordings left by the singer.
And at the time it looked like Queen’s day was over.
In a new documentary that aired this year in the US called The Show Must Go On: The Queen and Adam Lambert Story, May and Taylor opened up about Deacon’s departure for a quiet life.
Taylor said: “John freaked out and decided he really couldn’t deal with being in the music business anymore, It was an odd period. Really the band was over.”
While speaking with Rolling Stone, the drummer has previously said: “He’s completely retired from any kind of social contact.
“I think he’s a little fragile and he just didn’t want to know anything about talking to people in the music business, or whatever. That’s fair enough; we respect that.”
While May has said: “We don’t [keep in contact], really. He doesn’t want to. He wants to be private and in his own universe.
“It’s his choice. He doesn’t contact us. John was quite delicate all along.”
Deacon wasn’t involved in the creation of the Freddie Mercury movie Bohemian Rhapsody either.
However, Taylor revealed Deacon gave his blessing to whatever the two remaining members of Queen want to do with the brand.
